Well, I'll tell ya what they're NOT showing on PBS these days!

Have you heard? Reading Rainbow has come to an end. It will not be on the air any longer. Its ending specifically because it doesn't have the funding to continue. (I'm surprised they didn't run a special "Save Reading Rainbow!" telethon.) Instead, the focus, and funding, is being directed toward programming to teach kids HOW to read, rather than programming that is intended to foster a love of reading.
Okay. I have many thoughts, and the ADD is kicking in. And the distraction of 2 boys being super heroes and one boy nursing.
The vast majority of the kids WILL learn to read. And I seriously doubt that any of the kids learning to read are learning from the TV. They're learning from either parents, or teachers. For many of them, it will be hard, partly because it's a chore for them. Because the focus is on "you must learn how to read so that we can get higher literacy rates and therefore higher test scores and therefore more money." I do think of the kindergarten teachers who I know, and I have no doubt that they also do a good job of injecting joy into the experience.
But come on. This was ONE show that had the goal of encouraging kids to read, for the joy of reading. To go to the library, and find some good books to read. But there's no room for that in the PBS lineup. No, we need Word World to teach our kids to build a word (teaching phonics) and Super Why to teach our kids vocabulary, and Martha Speaks to teach the older kids vocabulary (and the younger kids that if you feed your dog alphabet soup, it will speak to you), and Word Girl to teach them even more vocabulary. And good grief, don't forget Caillou, who teaches our children to whine. There are a few good shows left. Not all of them air in my area, but looking at the website, there are still some good ones.
Sid the Science Kid - well, it doesn't teach a love of reading, but I think it DOES instill the joy of exploring and learning new things. And it's target audience is the preschool age group, rather than the older kids like RR is.
Sesame Street - Watch our for hidden agendas, but on the whole, still a pretty solid show that entertains and educates.
Between the Lions is the only one left standing that is pushing literature, and even that one splits its time between literature, vocabulary, and phonics.
There are several others that are decent (though maybe nerve-grating to adults) entertainment, often with good messages about being kind to your friends or recycling or something tossed in there.
But there's nothing out there just encouraging kids to go out and pick up a book and read it, for fun.

Okay, Xander is driving me insane, so consider this part one of a two part series on the topic!
source - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112312561